


fallingwater

by jessequicksters



Series: we didn't start the fire [8]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, Caves, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26222902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessequicksters/pseuds/jessequicksters
Summary: Sara's on a mission to recover a crystal from a cave and runs into the Reverse Flash, who taunts her with all the darkness lingering inside her.(for the prompt: 1829, eobard + sara)
Relationships: Sara Lance & Eobard Thawne, Sara Lance/Leonard Snart (past), Sara Lance/Rip Hunter (implied)
Series: we didn't start the fire [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885693
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: we didn't start the fire





	fallingwater

Sara’s never been a fan of caves. Too much of a reminder of the League of Assassins’ underground labyrinths, where no light pulsed through—no remnants of the outside world, no love, no hope. Sara's been through it all before, though. A woman who can move through the dark is a dangerous woman, Ra’s used to say.

Rip comes in through the comms and pleads for her to be careful, which she calmly responds with an ‘I’ve got this’ before the sound of rushing water floods her earpiece. Stalactites dripping. Mud squelching. Bats—skittering about, probably just waking up at the dawn of sunset.

She needs to focus for this next part, so she turns off the earpiece and leaps through the split in the cavern, where the natural rock formed a bridge, seemingly broken by something. Recent, by the looks of the sharp cuts, not yet eroded by the water.

And then, there it is: a single, tiny light emitting from a particularly a gap in the darkness, several feet away.

As far as swashbuckling Legends missions went, this was becoming uniquely challenging in the fact that it’s everything she’s not used to practicing with this team: stealth, diligence, caution and an unusual sense of _alone-ness_.

One wrong move and this entire cave would come crumbling down, and no one else on the team could be trusted with this type of retrieval mission. Well, Lenny probably would’ve managed. He was nimble, careful—always assessed the scene—and was one of the few people who could keep up with her.

Sara shuts out that entire train of thought. She can’t lose focus now, especially so close to the object they were trying to retrieve. No one knew what it is, but it was emitting energy so strong it was sending reverberations throughout the timeline.

She squeezes through the crevice into the light-leaked opening, bright white.

She never expected to meet a pair of glowing red eyes in there.

“Miss Lance,” Reverse Flash says. “Looking for something?”

He’s reaching for the crystal, but Sara immediately leaps in to send a kick to his chest. He laughs, surprised by her quick reflexes, and zooms in to barrel towards her with his super speed. She braces herself, arms out, and grips his shoulders as he comes charging towards her, shoving his weight to the side as they both go tumbling outside the crevice again.

She turns around and focuses on the light. Without it, Eobard’s super-speed isn’t going to cut it. Not here. Not in the dark where Sara has lived and trained to move seamlessly in over the years.

So, Sara takes a deep breath and leaps at him, as they both plummet further into the rift of darkness, where the rush of ice-cold water meets them.

Eobard tenses at the frigidity, fear splashing across the man’s face. Again, Sara’s been through it all before—the drowning, the ice-cold water, slipping away from the _Queen’s Gambit,_ from Oliver and all the life she knew.

“Your speed won’t save you,” Sara says, grabbing onto a nearby rock and dragging Eobard up, yanking his mask off and hooking it onto a protruding basalt column keeping him in place. “But neither will I.”

“R-ruthlessness s-suits you, Miss Lance,” Eobard says, body still being pushed by the running water like jellyfish limbs. He's trying to use his speed to move out of it, but it's too disorienting; the darkness, the flooding of the senses, the icy stream. He’s pressed against the wall, trying to hold onto the rock as she continues scaling up the slippery walls.

“I’ll be back! You know I will—I’ll f-find you, wherever you go. Wherever you move through time, I’ll b-be there. You’ll s-see me, when your eyes are closed and you think about the darkness within you. You’ll think of me right here, right now, and you’d think about whether I’m still alive.”

She finds her way through the caves with the crystal, eventually, but she isn’t sure if she ever makes it out of the dark.

-

It’s a quiet night in 2050, and Sara’s drinking the last of Rip’s old whiskey bottles with Nate in the Captain’s Office.

“You sure you should be finishing the last of these? I mean, the guy had great taste in drinks, but,” Nate’s eyes drop, fingers circling the glass Sara’s filling up rather quickly.

“But?” Sara raises an eyebrow, without stopping or looking up.

Nate lets the silence sit until the bottle’s all emptied out. He leans back and waves it off. “Never mind, there’s more to a person to remember them by than their alcohol stash. Cheers.”

Sara’s still not smiling, but she lets out a small exhale and Nate stands up and lingers over the record player.

“Don’t start looting the Captain, now,” Sara says.

“On the contrary, I am just—” Nate gently places down the needle over the record, already in place, “—picking up where Rip left off.”

It’s a piece by Mendelssohn. Sara remembers it used to be one of Rip’s favourite, although she doesn’t recognize the song.

“What’s this one called?” Sara asks, leaning forward as Nate pulls up the record sleeve and reads the printed text.

“It’s _The Hebrides_ , inspired by Mendelssohn’s trip to the Scottish island of Staffa in 1829 and more specifically, the basalt sea cave called Fingal's Cave. It was reported that the composer immediately jotted down the opening theme for his composition after seeing the island—it’s looming, black basalt pillars and the depths of its darkness.”

Nate continues on, “Apparently, in earlier drafts, it used to be called _To the Lonely Island_ or _Zur einsamen Insel_.”

Sara takes a sharp breath, suddenly feeling the cold bite of the caves chill enveloping the room. Her throat. Her chest. She used to think that she had conquered the darkness, but perhaps, Eobard was right. Perhaps, during that midnight sunset inside the caves, she let it slip back in through unguarded crevices. 

After all, what kind of person would’ve been able to sacrifice their Captain, their best friend, their—

“Stop!” she says, which takes Nate by surprise. “Sorry, I—I just need some air.”

She cries with the lights turned all the way up in her room. Rip is dead. At rest, at peace, at odds with everything her heart wants. Unless, of course, time hasn’t yet solidified, like ancient caves she can never escape, no matter where she goes.

_Wherever you go, wherever you move through time, I’ll be there. You’ll see me, when your eyes are closed and you think about the darkness within you. You’ll think of me right here, right now, and you’d think about whether I’m still alive._

**Author's Note:**

> part of yet another quarantine fic challenge with [illea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illea)


End file.
